FY20 Annual Report
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FY20 Annual Report When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters® Contents 1 Letter from Leadership 2 End COVID-19 3 A Look for a New Era 4 Defeat Lung Cancer 5 Champion Clean Air for All 6 Improve Quality of Life for those with Lung Disease and their Families 7 Create a Tobacco-Free Future 8 Special Events 9 Giving for Tomorrow 10 Looking Forward 11 Supporters 12 Financials Our Vision: 13 Leadership A world free of lung disease. 1 Letter from Leadership When you can’t breathe, ® With You When You Need Us Most nothing else matters When COVID-19 gripped our nation in 2020, the American Lung Association quickly stepped up, as we had had so many times before. More than 115 years ago, our organization arose to end the threat of tuberculosis (TB)–which was then the most feared disease in the world. We continue to use our uniquely effective, three-pronged approach of advocacy, education and research to make headway reducing other threats to lung health, like widespread tobacco use, rampant air pollution and waves of deadly flu and other infectious diseases. Through it all, we’ve been there, when American’s lungs have needed us the most. COVID-19 is a serious lung disease, and as America’s trusted champion for lung health, we recognized the urgency of the rapidly growing crisis, and took swift and bold action to reduce suffering and save American lives. In early April, with the crisis still revealing its true severity, we launched our COVID-19 Action Initiative–a $25 million commitment to marshal our resources to end COVID-19 and stop other emerging respiratory viruses in their tracks. As we took on this immense new challenge, we also embraced a new look, for a new era. You’ll see our new brand, as you go through this report, and visit our many other assets, like our newly redesigned Lung.org website. While COVID-19 has defined 2020, other risks to lung health didn’t take a time out. We continued to lead as the youth vaping crisis turned deadly and a new term EVALI (E-cigarette, or Vaping product use-Associated Lung Injury) gave parents another reason for concern. We defended the Clean Air Act against new threats and worked to ensure and quality, affordable healthcare for those who need it the most, all the way to the Supreme Court. Our Research program continued to expand, with new COVID-19 research awards, in addition to asthma, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis and much more. And our LUNG FORCE initiative continued to unite Americans against the #1 cancer killer–lung cancer. Of course, none of this important work is possible without your support. On behalf of our National Board, nationwide volunteers and staff, we extend our deepest thanks to you—the many individuals, families, foundations and businesses who trust us to be America’s champion for lung health. We are dedicated stewards of your donations, with 89 cents out of every dollar going to fund our program services. We often say, “When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters.” That’s why the American Lung Association will always be there when you need us most. Harold P. Wimmer Penny J. Schilz National President and CEO Board Chair Chair, Governance Committee 1 2 End COVID-19 When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters® When COVID-19 emerged as a nationwide pandemic, the American Lung Association was swift to act and launched the COVID-19 Action Initiative. Guided by our three main pillars of education, advocacy and research, this bold initiative is committing $25 million to end COVID-19 and defend against future respiratory viruses. We rapidly expanded our COVID-19 research and have since built an impressive foundation of COVID-19 research, funding awards and grants for preventative research and vaccines. We funded 12 research awards for a total of $2.4 million for the inaugural COVID-19 and Respiratory Virus research. Knowing that America turns to us for trusted, science-based information, we created scores of educational materials to help people understand the virus, how to stay safe and what to do if you become ill. We housed it all in a comprehensive “one stop shop”–Lung.org/covid19–which we continually updated as our understanding of this new virus grew. Resources included our COVID-19 Town Hall Series, FAQ’s, a stream of COVID-19 entries in our Each Breath Blog and much more. Because of COVID-19, our in-person health education and support activities had to go virtual. We quickly pivoted to online classes, including for Better Breathers Club, Freedom From Smoking sessions and Asthma Educator Institute. Our popular fundraising events like Fight For Air Climbs also got a virtual makeover. In the span of just three weeks, our largest Advocacy effort of the year, LUNG FORCE Advocacy Day pivoted to a virtual format and was held as scheduled. Because of our nationally-recognized expertise in lung health, we were able to effectively highlight for the public and the media the link between air pollution exposure and more severe COVID-19 outcomes and the complex racial and economic inequities that put certain population at even higher risk of severe COVID-19 impact. Our COVID-19 Information Hub Lung.org/covid19 is helping Americans stay informed and safe during the pandemic. 2 2 End COVID-19 When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters® As a leading advocate for public health, we worked on multiple fronts to steer our government to put the well-being of the public and especially our critical healthcare professionals first. We led a push by over 200 organizations calling for adequate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as masks, face shields and gowns for our critical health workers. We also advocated for much needed healthcare coverage policies, such as increased Medicaid coverage and funding for states, no-cost coverage of COVID-19 tests, the elimination of surprise medical bills and more. We championed robust funding increases to support our public health infrastructure and allow for independent, science-based public health responses to allow for continued access to needed care during the pandemic. We want to express our deepest gratitude to CVS Health and award-winning actress and longtime supporter Laura Dern for their critical support of our COVID-19 Action Initiative. Dern helped announce our new campaign with CVS Health to help end COVID-19 with an in-store and online giving campaign that launched in June 2020. In March, one of our funded researchers, John Schoggins, Ph.D., helped discover a protein that We dramatically increased our Airways plays a role in the immune Clinical Research Centers (ACRC) sites from response to COVID-19 22 to more than 35 and have expanded and might lead to our ACRC Network’s ongoing research by treatment options. looking at the impact of COVID-19 on lung disease patients in our studies. Thank you to our supporters. Presenting Sponsor Loann Crane 3 3 A New Look for a New Era When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters® What better way to celebrate the centennial of our iconic logo than to give it a fresh new look? To highlight our organization’s role today in an evolving public health landscape, while still celebrating our heritage, in March 2020 we unveiled a brand refresh–reintroducing the American Lung Association as the trusted champion of lung health to another generation of Americans. This brand transition is not just about changing our color palette or logo. It’s about an organizational transformation that better positions the Lung Association for the future. And while we hadn’t planned on launching during a pandemic, we understood the need to move forward with this year-long preparation and launch. 2020 marked the 100th anniversary of the Lung Association’s iconic logo. The double-barred cross is a modification of the Cross of Lorraine, which was adopted to symbolize the crusade against tuberculosis. Today, the three bars of our refreshed logo represent the three pillars of our mission: education Cutting the ribbon on our new brand advocacy research “The American Lung Association has long championed the lung health of Americans. From the youth vaping epidemic, COVID-19 and lung cancer to the health threats Some Things Continue associated with air pollution and climate change, the work of the American Lung Unchanged Association has never been more critical. Our Vision: While our mission and vision remain the A World Free of Lung Disease same, our new brand exemplifies how we’re evolving in order to best Our Mission: support American’s lung health To save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. and save more lives.” Our Tagline: American Lung Association President and CEO When you can’t breathe, Harold Wimmer nothing else matters®. 4 3 A New Look for a New Era When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters® Accolades for New Brand The important marketing industry magazine Ad Age included a feature story “How mission became the message in health organization’s rebranding” including a Q&A with Julia Fitzgerald, our Chief Marketing Officer, about how our new brand sharpened focus on our mission. Our brand refresh and website redesign was also a finalist in the PR News 2020 Platinum PR Awards—in a category that spans agencies, non-profits and for-profits alike. 5 4 Defeat Lung Cancer When you can’t breathe, nothing else matters® Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., and despite its undeniable impact on our nation, the disease often remains in the shadows.